Peter Vermes faces his toughest decision since becoming the Wizards&rsquo; interim head coach.</p><p>Does Vermes, whose day job is the Wizards&rsquo; technical director, want to replace himself as the team&rsquo;s coach?</p><p>&ldquo;I honestly can say I&rsquo;ve had a very good time coaching, and at the same time, what has to be weighed, is can the mix be done between the two?&rdquo; Vermes said before the Wizards closed out a disappointing 2009 season with a 2-2 tie to D.C. United on Saturday night at CommunityAmerica Ballpark.</p><p>Vermes stepped in when Curt Onalfo, in his third season as coach, was fired in August with a 5-7-6 record. The Wizards went just 3-6-3 under Vermes with the players he and Onalfo assembled for a team that was coming off consecutive playoff appearances.</p><p>&ldquo;It was an organizational decision when we made the change,&rdquo; Vermes said of Onalfo&rsquo;s dismissal. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s been an interesting process for me. No matter how close you are to things, until you are intimately involved with the team, it&rsquo;s very difficult to make the assessment of where the team is and where the players are.</p><p>&ldquo;As we moved through this process, we&rsquo;ve been taking a lot of resumes, a lot of people are interested in the job, and we are going to sift through and see what is available to us. At the same time, there is no doubt that ownership has talked to me a little bit about &hellip; would I be interested in staying on?&rdquo;</p><p>Vermes wants to take a little time and &ldquo;decompress a little bit&rdquo; before making a decision, though Wizards president Robb Heineman would like a new coach in place before the Nov. 26 expansion draft for the new Philadelphia franchise.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to sit down and figure out what&rsquo;s in the best interest of the organization,&rdquo; Heineman said. &ldquo;In the 12 games Peter has coached, we&rsquo;ve had a chance to evaluate the team and the roster. We trust Peter very much in his evaluation skills in what we&rsquo;re doing.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s clear this season was a disaster, and the results are unacceptable. What we understand for sure, is we need some additional resources to make sure we&rsquo;re developing players and evaluating players better than we have been, whether it&rsquo;s by hiring more people or adding technology or developing (outside) relationships, whatever it may be to improve.&rdquo;</p><p>While the Wizards&rsquo; won-loss record did not improve under Vermes, both he and Heineman have seen some positives.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve seen a different level of cohesiveness in the team,&rdquo; Heineman said. &ldquo;We have seen a little more organization. The results have been mixed on the field, but we do feel we have taken a step forward and understand where our weaknesses are a little bit better than we did at midseason.&rdquo;</p><p>The Wizards&rsquo; biggest weakness was putting the ball in the net. They scored 33 goals, which ranks near the bottom of the league.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt, everything we do is measured in results,&rdquo; Vermes said. &ldquo;I get that. The difference is there has been some dramatic improvement in our style, and knowing when we step onto the field, this is how we want to play and attack the other team. It takes time to build that. You can&rsquo;t snap your fingers and say we&rsquo;re going to now play this way.&rdquo;</p><p>Regardless of who is hired as head coach, Heineman said the Wizards&rsquo; roster will be overhauled during the offseason. Most players, though not assured of jobs next season, would like to see Vermes continue as coach.</p><p>&ldquo;Absolutely,&rdquo; goalkeeper Kevin Hartman said. &ldquo;Peter has done a good job of sliding in and recognizing what the group needs. We went through a very rough summer, which has been the M.O. for the last two years. It&rsquo;s tough to take a team at that point and all of a sudden turn it into an undefeated team.</p><p>&ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve made good strides, and hopefully we&rsquo;ve grown, and our soccer has shown we&rsquo;re moving in the right direction.&rdquo;